Source Bleue de Malbuisson

Montperreux

On the shore of Lac Saint-Point, water of a deep blue wells up from a basin so clear that it looks like a fragment of sky fallen into the forest. Science explains this hue by the natural splitting of light in very pure water coming from the Mont d'Or massif. But Franche-Comté tradition tells quite another story. In the 12th century, Amauri III, lord of Joux, leaves for the crusade, leaving his young wife Berthe at the castle. The years pass, he is said to be dead; Berthe lets herself be loved by a young knight. When Amauri reappears unannounced, he surprises the lovers: mad with rage and grief, he kills the knight and has Berthe locked up for life in a tiny cell in his fort, with the corpse of the man she loved as her only view. Tradition tells that the blue tears Berthe shed then gave the spring its colour. The place is earned gently: you walk along the lake, enter beneath the trees, and suddenly the basin appears, silent, cold even in summer, with its little waterfall. Divers have explored a flooded gallery there; walkers, for their part, mostly come to check that the blue really is as improbable as they say. Ten minutes from the château de Joux, where Berthe's cell is still shown, the circle of the tale closes on the shores of the Haut-Doubs.

Getting there : Easy path, about ten minutes from the Hôtel du Lac at Malbuisson, or waymarked 6.5 km loop (2 hrs, yellow and blue) starting from the Maison du Temps Libre in Malbuisson; free access all year round. Coordinates are those of the spring itself, on the territory of Montperreux.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound